The present invention is directed to chair mats and specifically, to chair mats typically used under desk chairs in order to protect an underlying carpet. In particular, the present invention relates to a chair mat having a decorative pattern and on which a chair, such as a desk chair, may be used without harming the decorative pattern.
Desk chair mats for office and home use are well known. Such a chair mat has a main portion on which the desk chair rolls, and can include a forward lip portion which is adapted to extend partially into a desk well, and on which the feet of the person sitting in the chair can rest. A desk chair mat that is to be applied over carpeting is typically formed of a semi-rigid plastic, and has an array of short, sharp spikes on an underside thereof, which hold the mat firmly in place on the carpeting. While desk chair mats can be made without any spikes, the mats tend to move relative to the carpet in response to movement of any desk chair on the top surface of the mat. Thus a carpet-engaging structure is deemed necessary to achieve satisfactory performance.
Such a desk chair mat is awkward to carry and/or otherwise handle due to its size, the semi-rigid nature of the material from which it is formed, and particularly with the spikes. Unless the chair mat is boxed or otherwise protected, the user typically carries the chair mat by gripping about one or two of the edges of the chair mat, often resulting in irritation if not injury to the hands, due to the spikes projecting from the underside of the chair mat.
Attempts have been made to solve these problems by making the chair mat foldable to thereby reduce its size for handling purposes. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,784,888; 5,073,428 6,183,833 and 6,284,341. Further, handles have been included as a portion of the chair mat to enable safe handling. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,177,165; 6,287,659 and 6,308,842. Generally, desk chair mats have been sold at office supply stores or distributors as opposed to retail stores, and to some extent, the handling problem was alleviated by boxing the chair mats individually or in groups prior to shipping. Chair mats are now being found increasingly in retail outlets, compounding the problem of safe handling. While chair mats can be boxed, the boxes add cost and are themselves unwieldy, and are therefore not necessarily desirable in the retail environment. Thus, with increasing retail activity, new display schemes are also required. The last mentioned patent includes the disclosure of a retail display system designed to facilitate safer handling of chair mats.
Even when supplied from a distributor in boxed form, the end user must remove the chair mat from the box and position it at its final destination, again, with some difficulty due to the physical attributes of the chair mat. Thus the opportunity for irritation if not injury to the hands, due to the spikes projecting from the underside of the chair mat continues even after purchase. Accordingly, there remains a need for a solution to the problem of transporting desk chair mats easily and safely from the point of manufacture through the point of stocking and display in a retail environment to the point of ultimate use.
Once situated for use, a typical chair mat tends to be positioned over carpeting. Such chair mats are typically made of a transparent or translucent plastic material. Thus, the underlying carpet on which the chair mat is placed is visible through the chair mat as are the structural details of the pattern of spikes that project down to engage the carpet. The chair mat generally does not make any separate esthetic contribution. Some attempts have been made to arrive at chair mats that contribute esthetically as well as provide protection for the underlying carpet, for example, the mat disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,319,592 to Ney et al. The Ney mat consisted of a separately prepared graphics layer sandwiched between a rigid base layer and a rigid upper protective layer. Both the base layer and upper protective layer were bonded to the graphics layer with the aid of adhesives. The nature of the graphics layer or the underlying adhesives layer is such as to render the base layer invisible. The area of the carpeting under such a chair mat would also be rendered invisible. This has the effect of making the chair mat itself stand out from the remaining portion of the carpeting, which may not be desirable in many situations. Accordingly, there remains a need for a desk chair to which graphics can be applied that are not subject to surface wear and remain visible along with the underlying carpet.